Tagish language
| Tagish | |
|---|---|
| Tā̀gish | |
| Native to | Canada |
| Ethnicity | Tagish people |
|
Native speakers
|
1 (2001) |
|
Dené–Yeniseian?
|
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | |
| Glottolog | tagi1240 |
Tagish is a language spoken by the Tagish or Carcross-Tagish, a First Nations people that historically lived in the Northwest Territories and Yukon in Canada. The name Tagish derives from /ta:gizi dene/, or "Tagish people", which is how they refer to themselves, where /ta:gizi/ is a place name meaning "it (spring ice) is breaking up.
The language is a critically endangered Northern Athabaskan language, closely related to Tahltan and Kaska. The three languages are often grouped together as Tahltan-Kaska-Tagish; by some the three languages are considered dialects of the same language. As of 2004, there was only 1 native fluent speaker of Tagish documented: Lucy Wren (Agaymā/Ghùch Tlâ).
Tagish is among many other languages within the large language family of Na-Dene languages, which includes another group of indigenous North American languages called the Athabaskan languages. The Northern Athabaskan languages are often considered to be part of a complex of languages entitled Tagish-Tahltan-Kaska. The languages in this complex have an extremely similar lexicon and grammar, but differ in systems of obstruents. Known alternatively as Dene K'e, Tagish is also closely related to the neighboring languages Tahitian, Kaska, and Southern Tutchone.
The culture of the Tagish people has its roots in both coastal Indian cultures and those from the interior (Tlingit and Athapaskan respectively). Trade and travel across the Chilkoot pass contributed to the mixing of these cultures. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, Tlingit-speaking peoples began to move in from the coast and intermarry with the native Tagish-speaking population. By the time outsiders first made contact in the 1880s, the majority of the people were bilingual, and the Tlingit language had replaced Tagish as the language of the majority.
Tagish became less common partially because native traditions were domesticated and suppressed by colonial administration through writing because there are open ended possibilities inherent in oral dialogue which are impossible to convey through text. The most significant impact on the decline of nearly every native language in Canada came when aboriginal children were forced to attend residential schools where they were forbidden to speak their own languages.
...
Wikipedia